Grrl Power #699 – Snek surfing
I hadn’t quite planned on Cora’s hard light projector being able to extend that far, because on top of giving her fairly broad disguise and shapeshifting powers, (on top of being a bit of a combat monster already), having an 18′ range on hard light constructs kind of turns her into a mini color accurate Green Lantern. At the very least, she could do a Doc Oc thing, or like a God of War bit with the sword/hook things on chains. I’m trying to avoid serious power creep with Cora, partially because I envisioned her being pretty powerful to begin with.
My half-assed solution to this is that everything on the snek tail past the second ground contact point is just projected hologram, and not actually hard light. So Cora’s cheating a bit there. I’ll say the hard light cutoff is about 8′. Still.
When Cora said this was an old loadout, she wasn’t kidding. I have a pencil drawing of her in this getup that’s like, 15-ish years old. She’s holding 4 scimitars in it, even though she’s not much of a melee fighter if she can avoid it. I had planned on scanning it, but it’s somewhere in a 10″ deep stack of drawings, so I’ll keep looking for it.
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Who can imagine if Deus and Sydney would say to each other…
“What are you doing here! ?!?!?”
They would say:
-Sydney: Hmm…
-Deus: Hmm…
-S: Hmm…
-D: Hmm…
-S: Hmm…
-D: Hmm…
-S: Hmm…
-D: Hmm…
-S: Hmm…
-D: Hmm…
-S: Hmm…
-D: Hmm…
.
.
.
And then Cora would pipe in “So THAT’S where the droning sound on that Earth “Bagpipes” instrument originated!”
You really think either of them would be at a loss for words? And you just know that someone as egotistical and narcissist as Deus would think Sydney is there because of him.
Also, I wonder if Vale thinks she’s being used to her full potential?
What we saw underneath Vale’s skin kind of makes it look like she could eat worlds, if she wanted to. So be thankful that she does not distinguish feats less than that as being anything more than ‘stuff to while away eternity with’.
While Sydney and Deus ‘hmmm’d at each other, Cora and Vale would silently size each other up, realize that the other was a formidable badass, silently nod acknowledgement to each other, and wordlessly turn back to wrangling their capricious and unpredictable charges.
What he said!
ROFL
You should re-read the comic more often. :p
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/2038
Promptly followed by a intense game of Dead Space
I would say she could always do the (pretend to be something else and put limitations on yourself) game…but, not sure she isn’t right now. Like *I think I’ll pretend to be a super for awhile, looks fun*.
Vale totally saw it…
Choosing to ignore it.
I agree in full.
Not fully agree, that doesn’t carry a potent enough connotation.
I agree in full.
“Cora, how long would it take you to get me home in your ship?”
(answers)
“Okay Deus, how ’bout you?”
(laughs, doesn’t answer right away)
“Your jurisdiction doesn’t extend past Earth, Miss Scoville.”
“Hey Cora, does my jurisdiction extend past Earth because of who I know?”
“Yes.”
[The NinjaBear ]:
Agreed.
Given the angle of her elbows in Panel_4, those packages are most definitely blocking her view BY_CHOICE.
After the “Elevator Incident”, Vale most likely prefers to avoid that “flaky rando ditz nutcase human” if at all possible.
Her elbows are angled like that because she is carrying bags on her arms
Not at a loss for words. They’d just continue their previous, extremely detailed conversation
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/2038
[Demoloscopoidon]:
Agreed.
Those 2 have just the right flavor of personalities to complement each others’ brand of childishness.
Black Rose… I know it’s not the most uncommon moniker, but I knew someone who used that pretty frequently that I haven’t been in touch with for over a decade!
If it’s the person I’m thinking of, then ironically, I can say “What are you doing here ?!?!?!” lol
Florida resident?
2nd Panel, background. The two grey silhouettes remind me of the 2 main characters from an HFY story called “Xeno Mates.”
Whereas you remind me of a xeno-genocidal individual, bent on seeking out and destroying all Alien life!
Those silhouettes could equally be a sting ship crew, from the Alan Dean Foster Humanx setting. Each ship was piloted by both a human and an insectoid Thranx. Humans providing the brutal killing capability, whilst the Thranx provides calm analytic ability even in all the complexities of space combat. Both enhanced by drugs which turned them into a perfect combination crew, unmatched by any rivals.
The alien behind the human looks more like a Keeper from Mass Effect than a Thranx.
Not to mention SCCAM missiles
Ah the Ophidian phase *due to various name issues and various mythological, folklore, inconsistent naming histories, and fantasy/sci-fi variants I just went with “Ophidian” for everything snake.
Heck even wrote (its in-universe GMO “Monster Mates” series style but it high lights the basic different body plans I could find for Ophidian class beings)
https://www.deviantart.com/rhuen1/art/GMO-Pet-Ophidian-Line-590907664
While not there I tend to use Naga for things closer resembling the snake women from X-com
like this demon example *don’t worry this is a short entry*
Naji’ina the demon naga queen
https://www.deviantart.com/rhuen1/art/Naji-ina-the-demon-Naga-Queen-607207592
*My biggest regret for this character was my decision to have her randomly speak words from different languages as part of her hellish surrealism when going after soul bodies…and not writing down anywhere what she was actually saying…or what specific languages she was taking words from…so from now on she is only going to use Spanish, German, French, Italian, and Japanese when intersecting English words and not whatever I randomly pick from google translate like her appearances so far.
and you know what just for fun, this thing I made for the Colossal Kaiju Combat forum back when I was on it…
Sasquatchaconda
https://www.deviantart.com/rhuen1/art/Sasquatchaconda-566749089
In truth the Naga/Lamia mood hits me every so often, usually in summer, and I write one or two stories for it…it various from fairly tame to *why the hell would I write something like that? Was I going through a psychotic break down??* especially after some feed back and…requests…well that’s how I learned about Vore…tried to write a story with horror and erotic elements and the surreal and disturbing juxtaposition of the two together and….it got some people off apparently and they wanted more…although the teaser versions I was inspired to write later because of that are so amusing to see reactions to.
Funny enough my OP powerhouse of a character Rhulan was going to have either a form or a clone called Rhunalia that was going to be a four armed Lamia where each hand could use a separate elemental power at the same time but…I am pretty sure I retired that design before ever using it in anything.
My first reaction was ‘Cool a Naga form’, wonder if they met before!
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/05/Companions_of_Xanth_cover.jpg – Nada the Naga
And yes Nada was in both a game and several books as a character
Huh, learned something new, didn’t know Xanth was a legitimate book thing. I only ever saw the term on deviant arts of giant naga eating tiny people.
Piers Anthony’s Xanth novels are where outcast puns nobody else would touch go to find a home.
me thinks thou-est not grok thy subtlety of yon barbs. :)
Like the moon (which is made of cheese), puns need a fine whine.
BTW. the title of the 13th book, are the three most dangerous word in the English language.
Huh, I’m behind on my reading it seems – now up to 45 books
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xanth
*looks it up*
*thinks about saying it aloud*
*sees what you did there*
Stopped reading at the book with the several hundred-year dead zombie chasing after the teen girl (only ‘positive’ is it came out years before Twilight, with the paedophile vampire chasing after the teen girl)
Did it come out before Buffy the Vampire Slayer having a several hundred year old vampire going after a teen girl?
Yes, he’s been writing those since the late 70’s. I suppose it’s better than him writing SciFi with wildly inappropriately aged sex interests, like his other books. Could never read Zanth again after running across those books.
He does right good books, just personally can’t get past that bit about huge age differences and the fact, according to his bio (“Bio of an Ogre”) he claims that he ‘can only write about things he knows about or has experienced’, so a middle aged man having anal sex with a teenage girl (the same age as his daughters) kinda sits a little funny (pun may or may not be intended :P), and that scenario has shown up in a few of his stories
Not sure what you read, but at no point in any of his Xanth books did he ever have any ‘lurid scenes’ it would have violated the ‘adult conspiracy’
Was that the one where the girl and the zombie were in fact from the same time period, and she’d formerly been a several hundred-year dead ghost?
Or am I thinking a different zombie/human romance?
No idea, stopped reading after just a few pages (or maybe didn’t even get that
This was sometime in the early to mid 90’s, stopped reading books around the mid to late 90’s
IIRC the two characters was guy who used his power to be a zombie, and one got tricked and was turned into a ghost.
One was the zombie master, and one was Millie the ghost. Once they returned to the living they were approximately the same age.
And as far as ‘teenage’ you do realize that in medieval times they married at 12-13.
Wait a minute!
Xanth Naga have human heads but no arms or legs. They have a fully snake form, or a fully human form, but nothing like what’s in the picture unless that got retconned.
I always thought they had arms since they had spears etc. Also with how the ‘love spring’ worked – it was half and half for the first iteration of the kids.
I believe that Dave’s preferred term is “lamia”. A fact that has always struck me as a missed opportunity, since “naga” opens up more potential for chilli puns.
Naga is my preferred term for that reason and also because it’s not a specific mythological person like Lamia was. Who, incidentally, bore no direct connection to snakes.
Yeah, but at this time much like the Alraune the Lamia has become the primary used term for fantasy and monster girl fans even if the only thing I could ever find that resembled the fantasy Alraune was some art of people being turned into flowers from Greek Mythology; and looked to evolved into its present form more from Devil Summoner games than anything else from its Mandrake original form.
on the pun thing, might be a reason to avoid using “Naga”, given the annoying / borderline racist…scratch that…racist but thinking it funny to use a homonym puns my sister spouted on when watching Slayers.
Although to be fair on the individual thing, the name is used for more than one thing, and like so much of Greek mythology likely the result of cross-cultural exchange from the likes of Lamashtu. Lamiae were regarded as a type of snake themed succubus/vampire in Greek folklore (or a shark monster), among others, it seems more then it was a catch all term for child killing and seduction demons.
but honestly a Drakaena would more closely match the modern image the Lamia has been given than anything else.
But that’s the way of myth vs fantasy, adapt the terms. Heck just think of this
Harpy (in myths they are wind spirits of vengeance not physical bird people)
Minotaur was an individual
Alraune and mandragora were the same thing
There was never a spider monster named Arachne, she was turned into an actual spider, the Jurogumo would be closer,
But that’s the way of things, I mean just look at the internet arguments about “dragon” thanks to TSR’s games enforcing one specific body shape despite the fact in myths the term refered to any number of horrifying chimeric beasts.
Or the fate of the words “Demon” and “Fairy”…or vampire and zombie how far they’ve diverged from their origins.
The fun bit is that Xanth is not too far out of scope canon-wise to Grrlpower-verse since Xanth also has magic. Technically it is also protected by a veil too.
I would debate “primary used term”, given that I have seen the two used pretty interchangeably, but I don’t know how much my own experience qualifies me to judge current usage. I’m not the biggest fan of monster girls for the sake of monster girls so, aside from Interviews With (a wholesome look at bipedal ones as disability), I’ve seen very little of the genre. And my fantasy reading ground to a near halt most of a decade ago due to studies.
Furthermore, I have no idea where I stand on fantasy racism, since it mimics something obviously terrible but has no direct effect on real people and a lot of the terms involved are defined by history which is, quite clearly, subject to change along with the various worlds on offer. Plus, my recollection of Slayers is hazy at best.
Harpies as windformed spirits actually explains some stuff, though, and I’m still unclear on Alraune vs Mandragora vs Mandrake. That said, I see that you omitted the ever-popular pegasus when giving examples of races that are really individuals. Would that perhaps be because of the existence of the term “pegasid” as a literal descriptor for a Pegasus-like entity?
Some of your examples don’t bother me as much, since there isn’t a clear, non-unique alternative like with Pegasus and Lamia, but I do get your point and I do think that the idea of separating “snake with humanoid torso” from “snake with human torso” holds some merit. Just perhaps not quite as much as “This name belongs to a unique, yet vaguely defined, ravenous monster. What powerset can we give her?”. There was something really cool about the depiction of Lamia as a hivemind of locusts forming a pseudo-human body that I once heard about.
Monster Musume pretty much got Lamia cemented these days between Lamia and Naga. That could change in the future, I’ve seen it go back and forth online.
Slayers doesn’t really have fantastic racism, I was referring to my real world sister being a dumbass after hearing so much rap music and thinking the word “Naga” was close enough to the N-word to use it like that and think its funny because she’d never heard the word Naga before.
the Alraune thing was an example of how modern culture has adapted what previously was something very different into what it is today, check out the German movie “Alraune” vs the modern fantasy games depiction…they are literally nothing alike. So its more a case of plant related name being given to plant monster.
An older example could be Orc, from what I’ve read the term might have been borrowed by Tolkein from the Orkneyjar *Orkney Island ugly unwater fin-men*, so if this is the case we have ugly merpeople with mermaid daughters who have a branched evolution depending on if they marry a human (become human) or a fin-man (become fin wife), too the ugly humanoids we know from Tolkein…to somehow in most Japanese anime being pig-men.
I didn’t omit Pegasus, there are plenty more examples of singular beings being used as plurals in fantasy, heck some vampire movies and stories have tried to use an individual’s name as a class of vampire plenty of times. It would be bothersome to list them all.
My only thing with anything fantasy or sci-fi is that it falls in the middle, no extreme of (this and only this qualifies) or (contrary for contrarian purposes…unless done with rule of funny), that said my general viewpoint is
So long as it is internally consistent I can roll with it.
Just don’t give me a pyrokinetic cowboy and call it a phoenix or a brain eating dagger finger and call it a Kitsune and not expect me to call Bull shit on it. If you want to be unique don’t go and connect pre-existing folklore monster names to it, be more creative than that, make something all your own, then give it a name to call its own.
Ah, ok. The long As that I’m used to it being pronounced with make “naga” a bit too different for me to have ever made that connection naturally. Personally, though, referring to friends as snake people like rappers refer to eachother does tickle my funnybone. It just also needs tact and discretion.
I will look into the Alraune when I next have the time but, in the mean time, I would like to point out that ugly direct relatives of mermaids and ugly direct relatives of elves do share a certain common concept. And also that both dwelt beneath the surface world, even if one was underwater and the other underground.
I see nothing inherently wrong with the pyrokinetic cowboy, provided that they follow the classic death and rebirth cycle and are clearly labelled as having taken their name or obtained their powers from the non-human version. Bonus points if they like cinnamon but yeah, do not, under any circumstances, expect me to accept that that’s what a phoenix has always been. In universe or otherwise.
And I did catch your post about you being a bit more open in your useage further down but there was nothing there that warranted further discussion, sorry.
I also want to draw attention to the post in this block right below here where I expanded on what I said. I’m personally not a stickler for a term just because it is in common use. I switch between Lamia and Naga in stories all the time unless the setting requires the names to mean a specific version.
Actually, for Pegasus, there is. “Pegasus” was the name of a specific pterripus, which means “winged horse”). The plural is pterripi. I’d imagine one possible reason that some fantasy settings (including Dungeons & Dragons) use “Pegasus” as the name for the entire race is to avoid controversy over how to pronounce pterripi.
You’re right about Lamia, though. Traditionally, Lamia was a Libyan queen who ate children, but John Keats might have turned her into a snake woman even though she wasn’t originally, possibly combining her with Lilith, who was associated with the serpent in the Garden of Eden.
In Hinduism and Hindu Mythology, Nagas (more properly nagin or nagini if a female) are a very diverse group of snake-related entities, ranging from nature spirits to gods. The Naga of Hindu myth typically only have two arms (or none), but are you really going to tell a being with that much power that they’re not supposed to have four or six arms? ;-)
This seems a weird etymology, shouldn’t it be pterrihippo or alaequus? Does the original Greek really say pterripus? -pus means foot, not horse, and its plural is -podes.
Looks like it’s come from the Greek etymology, but been contracted along the way. Winged horse -> pterri-hippus -> pterri(hi)ppus -> pterripus. People get lazy about language like that.
(If you think that’s bad, you should see some of the shifts that get bandied about in place names. Especially in regions that have seen multiple waves of invaders/traders/settlers, each having their own language.)
There seems to have been some confusion here. I was intending to say that those two were the exceptions that did have such alternatives. As I mentioned with the (slightly) more common “pegasid”.
Just for clarification, I am not a stickler for myth terms over fantasy terms or vice versa, provided you aren’t TRYING to be all “this is the absolute version” like the dragon issue, or are just trying to contrary like having something that is clearly a vampire and calling it a ghoul…or the numerous examples of “we refuse to use the term zombie in our movie/story”.
Heck I use the term Naga more than Lamia now that I think about, mainly as I use Naga for things that are more snake like than human like and well…magical demon Naga are more likely to show up in my series than what I call a Lamia.
Reading back through this, I neglected to post the second set of the Ophidian line (the military models) on deviant art.
well just to be a perfectionist, did, and might as well link here since I linked to the original line, why not.
https://www.deviantart.com/rhuen1/art/GMO-Pet-Ophidian-Line-part-2-780473421
My first thought was Sarigar from Alien Legion, though he has only 2 arms. I guess the SF setting put him more in my mind than the fantasy “lamiaoids”.
http://alienlegion.com/roster.html
That’s neat, its like if someone crossed a Kree, Skrull, and a Naga together.
Vale’s quick to the punch here, is it just snark, or does she know something?
Well she is quick to the punchline, for the scene. Which is the key point.
But, to explain why she may have allowed herself to be loaded up like a pack-mule, we could speculate that she has a well-developed ‘Spidey-sense’, that allows her to detect any danger. As neither Sydney nor Cora would attack either herself or Deus, this would not activate. Hence being blithely unconcerned at whatever Deus may have heard.
Not, of course that I have anything to substantiate that. But Vale is some kind of eldritch horror, so probably does have a whole bunch of supernatural abilities, beyond just being badass.
I would expect at the very least smoky combat tentacles.
Those are all her purchases, SmugD can lug his own crap (he’s going to claim them as his own inventions soon enough)
Yeah, Deus is here to do business – Vale is the one treating it as a shopping expedition.
No, SmugD is there to steal advanced tech, because there would be an embargo on doing business with Dirt, certainly not openly doing business, plus remember he had Vale steal the Cosmic Canopener
From the way it was described it sounded like it was an iffy situation for just below FTL and just over it to openly do business. They might assume his mere presence at the Fracture is evidence enough that Earth is about to join the FTL ranks, so some tech may be acceptable.
Plus it sounds like a gate issue/kinda lax embargo (not fully enforced) if they just go around the travel gates via ships or personal portals like Deus used. That looked like a private room with no guards or check points he entered, possibly Vale’s doing or her own personal space there.
What we could be seeing with Deus and the oddly familiar yet not sure why looking alien is a future arrangement. Deus could/likely playing himself off as the first representative of Earth at the Fracture, setting up the ground work for future “first dibs” privileges for doing business on the Fracture and this alien’s company doing business on Earth through Deus’ company.
Was going by the fact that the existence of real ET’s is restricted to a select number of individuals, and SmugD is not supposed to be amongst that number (going by Maxi’s attitude towards Sydney when she was about to confirm their existence)
Plus the fact that he is just higher form of scum who is only out for himself, if others manage to somehow benefit, well, that can’t be helped
Maxima said in that conversation that Deus does know about them, but others could be listening in on the device.
But yes, he is only out for himself. However that doesn’t mean the alien he’s dealing with is a patsy, he could also be out for himself and doesn’t care if he gets exclusive access to selling stuff Earth side should Deus develop a more…industrially producible star gate, and get Earth declared accessible by the lower FTL civilizations; by tricky means.
Meant the scene in SmugD’s office when Sydney was about to reveal that aliens really exist
I would say it’s more if others manage to breathe that’s brilliant because he can make a profit off them. Maybe even charge them for the air. And there’s no fun in taking over the world if there’s no-one to see it.
18′ range? Does that mean she can go all Ripley piloting a loader while screaming, “Get away from her, you b*tch!” when she wants?
More importantly, we’re talking about an 18′ sphere, right?
Check out the full blog above, Dave indicates he is likely to limit the hard light to just 8′, with the rest being just a hologram.
As for the exact way it is measured, that will likely be determined by the need of future plots. No need for Dave to commit himself at this stage. Currently (unless Sydney falls flat on her face) we do know that it is solid at least up to the point where she is standing on the tail.
Technically, Sydney is using her flight orb to stay balanced…so it’s quite possible that the only foot actually on Cora’s hardlight tail section is her lead foot, and her rear foot is only faking contact with the hologram version…
If you check out the rest of the blog, you will see that only 8′ is hard light (i.e. including at least as far as Sydney is resting her foot on the tail). The rest is just hologram.
Well that post had not appeared for 3 minutes, despite trying to force it right up until retyping it.
*sigh*
Takes Cora to a new level I guess. This is more than glamour or costume change, this is shapeshifter with the artillery optional package. Puts her squarely in Dabbler’s power bracket.
Was a little confused with Sid’s sudden sk8ter boi skills (not a sporty sport you say). But I see she is pulling a cheat with the fly ball (+5 to balance and agility?).
Well we do know the flyball gives Sydney immunity to vertigo, which would probably give some edge. However she can totally cheat by simply defining where she is positioned, and how. Halo could actually be standing on the holographic part of Cora’s tail (with her left foot), yet because the fly ball is supporting her she may not even realise that there is nothing substantive underfoot.
Well spotted on the orb and the significance. I had picked it out, on my first read through, but it did not really sink in that she was using it to allow her to use Cora as a surf board.
I wonder what he would do there if he saw her..
On one hand it would reveal that he has off world travel stuff. Which folks wouldn’t like
but.
rescuing her would make Max “owe him” and he is all about connections to Max when it suites his plans.
Between the two he’d end up having to “share” his tech and the amount of playing with Max’s debt isn’t worth that much.
Not sure how Deus could “rescue” Sydney given that she has already been rescued by Cora.
I’m thinking it is more likely that Sydney and Cora end up rescuing Deus when he finds himself stranded on The Fracture after the impending failure of Fan Nine.
The inevitable meeting of Syd and Deus would have to be…
“In all the Gin joints in all the galaxy, you had to walk into mine.”
It doesn’t have to be hard light, or at least not for the coils. She could have just teleported it in since she uses a lot of the same tech as Dabbler.
To be honest, that was kind of my thought, in that the tail was a prosthetic, rather than part of her power.
Well there is an idea, mecha mythos parts as prothetic/cybernetic enhancements.
Plug herself into a snake body, mermaid, arachne, centaur, ect… aids in moving around environments/cities made by such races and added mobility advantages there of.
It isn’t hard light, it is a ‘projected nanovoxel’. ;-)
Dave decided to go that way because ‘It seemed cool and more futuristic (and this after I just bagged on myself for not being much of a futurist.)’
Which it is.
As regards the tail being a prosthetic, you may well find that she does still have a mechanical version of that in her workshop. However she recently upgraded to her ‘hard light’ capability, so that just becomes a backup in the event of somebody finding a way of negating the projection, despite her precautions.
Plus we do know that there is at least one teleport denial capability out there (namely Halo’s shield). That may not be unique, so avoiding being reliant on teleportation is wise. Whilst Dabbler does use that capability, she has a very broad range of abilities, so if one is countered she has plenty of other options. Cora may not be as versatile.
Utility wise this is probably superior as a damaged prosthetic will be disabled until repaired. Whereas the projection could simply be reset if it is disrupted.
I am reading that as, nanite swarm using colored lasers, mini-forcefields to produce textures, and molecular assembly on a small scale among each other and available/teleported in materials to create short range, quick builds.
So hard light with assistance,
I must object here in that it is not “a projected nanovoxel”. Cora didn’t finish her sentence, but since a voxel is just a 3d pixel, we can safely assume she was about to say “grid”, “field” or something else that makes “projected nanovoxel” a modifier of the upcoming noun.
Wow did not quite expect that. I guess I should have but I almost forgot the Deus was even there it’s funny how that near meeting happened how does he recognize her exclamation of surprise
Because its still her voice.
SNEK!!!
(That is all)
Snexy Sssyber Snek.
Every time I see a bird-like alien now I’m like: RUN LITTLE CHOZO BEFORE SAMUS STEALS YOUR POWERS!
Still, that is a handy form.
Deus’s business partner now has a thick Scottish accent.
Deus, while I appreciate you have a lot to buy, perhaps it would be wiser NOT to have your bodyguard in a situation with her hands full and her vision and situational awareness limited.
Like, I dunno, invest in a shopping cart or something.
Wait didn’t he arrive with a shopping cart?
He does have a hammer space shopping cart. But it has the limitation ‘can only be used when dramatic’.
And, yea, Vale is failing in her duties as a body guard in allowing Deus to use her as a pack mule.
But rule of funny overrides that. Cause it made me laugh. ;-)
It’s already full to overflowing.
Apparently, I was getting confused with the vault.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/2653
Well he still owns the shopping cart, so could use it if he wanted to. Presumably though he does not want to summon his wormhole anywhere other than a designated wormhole opening spot. I imagine there are rules to prevent smuggling (which he has probably circumvented, but will not want to casually draw attention to his capability).
Given Vales nature, I get the feeling she can (lash out) if needed even with her hands full.
I hope that Sydney does NOT see Deus, nor vice versa. I suspect that his presence here is something that he would be willing to take extreme measures to prevent Archon from finding out.
Not that ‘being offworld’ is a crime. But any investigation into how he got there may endanger his contract as a major government supplier.
It would be a lot funnier if they don’t meet, but later Deux sees her with a takeout doggy bag from the vendor with the superspicy food (Once she figures out how to return to Earth with the Stargate function of the Fly Ball, I’m betting Sydney is going to be going to the Fracture for lunch. A Lot.)
So, basically, a marilith. OK, this is definitely pinging some of my fetishes *pokes fingers together bashfully*
Mariliths are built for hugging, what’s not to love?
Yeah, marilith was my first thought on seeing “many-armed serpent-women with scimitars”. From memory she’s still missing a couple of arms, but definitely got that aesthetic…
Why not just give her mechanical parts that she can teleport in and attach to the hard light construct?
Previously she probably did have just that (and we know, from his commentary, that Dave drew Cora like this 15 years ago, whilst he only just recently decided to use the ‘hard light’ alternative). So it would have become obsolete once she got the more advanced technology.
Plus it is likely much more convenient to tweak this. If she wants it to look organic, she can just pick a snake skin texture and the change is done. Whereas it may take weeks in a workshop to make a change like that. Similarly she could make a change on the fly, in combat, if she had a specific need (say gaining six arms so she could carry stuff in addition to using weapons).
My cheat for this is that it gets less hard the further it goes out, so even the range listed, isn’t as deadly hard as a spike at the shoulder.
As another possible tweak, if she’s got a space she can teleport ammo out of to reload her arm weapons, the lower segment teleported in, and has secondary emitters. The lower segment needs to be no more then a long tendril of emitters, perhaps with a telescoping socket.
But yes, this is absolutely the kind of loadout only made by those who like to tweak things, no way would a change like that be on the regular market.
Though Daves a decent writer hes definately got a blindspot when it comes to trying to avoid writing overpowered characters,Heck the easiest way for him to have nerfed Cora wouldve been to redesign her as a dude and then the power nerfings wouldve come naturallylol.
That said the second you give a character cool technology and the intelligence and skill to use it creatively youve essentially given them a superpower intended or not.
Its better than writing under-powered characters in a super powered setting, as those can become so bothersome, annoying, and the exact opposite of fun to work with that you give into the darkness and have them die a brutal death as you had become so exhausted by their mere existence hindering what could have been much cooler moments had they not been such…buzzkills to the flow of the narrative.
Admittedly underpowered characters can suck in a superpowered setting(Which is why we probably wont see much of the guy whos got like super reflexes/bullet time perception or whatever cause that would require Math level skills to make into a viable threat in a super setting) but unless the average villain gets a severe threat level jump theres a risk of the opposite to what youre saying happening.Or to put it another way if half the cast is at Anvil level or higher then things will get pretty dang boring and all fights turn into this https://img.fireden.net/co/image/1479/52/1479520822466.jpg
That’s pretty much what Maxima did in her debut appearance at the bank, anyway.
Yeah you don’t want things to be too easy, but you also don’t want to fall into the DBZ trap of escalating the threat’s powers/strength every time. See it too often these days where a show or series thinks it has to be like DBZ and just make the next threat to come along (bigger, stronger, harder to kill, more powerful, ect..)
Older comics ended up doing the villain team ups rather than keep escalating, we also have character development, slice of life moments, training, nuances, smart enemies like Deus, there is something to be said for an enemy you can’t just punch or face in the scorched ruins of a dead world and pew pew each other into oblivion. Having set ups where the hero has to hold back, which can both make the enemy a bigger threat than normal as the hero realizes the amount of power it would take to take down this opponent, or their own real option for stopping them, could cause serious collateral damage. Or have diplomatic problems.
The three killers of anything with super powers or supernatural forces.
1: I am the Omni-Master, nothing can harm me, I am perfect in every way. I defeat all opponents instantly and everyone loves me for it, and I can do any job, and figure out any technology instantly.
2: I am captain loser, everyone hates me, I have no powers, I hate myself, I don’t know why I fight crime, I think I just want someone to kill me, and making people hate me makes them at least acknowledge me. Now I will sit here in my filthy apartment and cry into my super suit because this life of crime fighting is to blame for not having enough time for my girl friend.
3: We have defeated the city destroying MechaTron…but wait, look there, the planet destroying MegaMechaTron…then we must defeat the sun eater OmegaMechatron…and then the galaxy buster OmniMechaTron…oh crap…now we have to fight the dimension destroyer TrueOmniMechaTron….but hold on…we must now ascend to defend the multiverse from the AntiTrueOmniMechaTron….
The sad thing is I can already see that Dragonball Super dispite intentionally blurring the concept of powerlevels has already started returning to the escalating powerlevels as threat formula which started making it so boring in the first place.Still I trust Dave to be better than that even if hes got a thing for making every female character 10 times more dangerous than every male character.
Heres to hoping we see some smart villains who can work around being the underdogs(I consider anyone facing a team with 3 potential city killers an underdog unless theyre Vehemance or whatever his name was) and actually give the Archon staff a run for its money.
Yeah, I take it you are waiting on the dubs and not jumping ahead with the subs/got future plot points spoiled by Xenoverse 2’s DLC and free updates.
But yeah Dragon Ball Super has fallen back into that trap…it is also doing other annoying things that make no sense like suddenly bullets WORK on Goku and the gang provided their guard is down…I know Super is trying to push even further away from the comedy origin of the series but…this makes a HUGE plot inconsistency when bullets didn’t work on Goku, or even Krillen or Roshi back in Dragon Ball. Heck first episode of the entire series had Bulma shoot Goku in the head and all it did was give kid Goku a little bump.
but yeah…they fall back on the escalating power level threats. I will give the show credit its not as goofy as Supernatural (live American show that’s somehow into season 12 despite its creators planning to end the series at 5 or 6)…and despite the fact it too fell on the escalating threats level thing…despite the fact its central premise requires everything no matter how powerful to have a weakness that ordinary humans can exploit…so even cosmic lovecraftian nightmare beasts end up as folklore level monsters as a result.
To be honest, Grrl Power drew me in as a more slice of life adventure. Being OP is fine, provided constant battles aren’t the focus, and the focus is character interactions and relations. Again my gold standard on that (Tenchi Muyo), most of the cast are planet buster and above, but rarely get into battles except like once a series *OVA continuity for clarification* and the rest of the time is just watching them interact with each other and do household things. One of the highest ranked episodes of the first or second OVA was the babysitting Tenchi’s infant cousin episode. We had this space princess who could punch through battle mechs and a planet ruining space pirate, the invincible space detective, and the avatar of the most powerful pirate ship in the galaxy being fabrigasted trying to watch a baby, and the smartest person in the universe (who we later find out is one of the three creators of the multiverse) giving into her maternal instincts to watch the baby.
Not saying Grrl power should do a babysitting episode…far from it, (for fear it would turn into that dreaded trope of…chase the baby through dangerous places); but like right now Sydney had her big battle and now is spending some downtime on the way home getting to know Dabbler’s old friend Cora and the two are finding their common grounds.
Fairly sure Supernatural is into season 14 or 15 (they finally ditched the whole Angelic “God is real” crap and resumed their old hobby of hunting ‘ordinary’ monsters, including a cartoon cross-over with Scooby Doo)
Yeah, well they lost me when they turned Lovecraftian horrors “leviathans” into pac man headed V-invasion aliens.
and what I’ve overheard/read online (in part because I was going to name an alien race Amara and like to double check other uses for words first)…they also met God’s sister the source of chaos…so…yeah…I’m not likely to get back into the show at this point.
They went over their budget/imagination limit; but hey, if they are returning to what made the show…watchable…when it started good for them. They should never have escalated to begin with, that shark has been jumped. Going from demons are super rare and have omens up to…angels…arch-angels…The Devil…Lovecraftian horrors….The Devil’s cousin or whatever…and God’s sister after apparently killing Death from what I heard….yeah…they jumped several sharks.
But at least they waited long enough to jump that shark it looks like they can try and stay on the air by back peddling…better than Lost Girl that jumped its shark in season 2….a great concept of someone who lived her whole life thinking she was some mutant freak discovering the existence of Fae societies and not wanting to choose between their factions was a great concept…until…there are secret societies, this area you just happened to be found by us in is actually not just some little random city but like super important…guess what your dad might have been a super important dark fae from an old war…to oh no a super fae predator…too oh no your dad is actually the devil who was sealed away…but got like a day pass to knock your mom up while she was in this other dude’s custody somehow…we stopped caring about continuity and focused on escalating threats; here’s some BS evil council stuff.
Doesn’t need to be that much cool technology. Dave might’ve spend 15 years thinking about Cora and technology she can use, but SHE spend at least 40 years thinking about that technology on top of formal education in it. That basically guarantee that there is something she can do without Dave thinking about it.
Very true,This is the challenge of introducing cool tech in general,When a writer comes up with something like this he has to try to work out all the possible applications of the technology/equipment in general and will probably miss several ideas that the readers will spot instantly.Its why back when I DM’d a lot in pathfinder/ D&D I always found it entertaining to hand out “useless” magical items just to see how the players would turn these items into game breakers n.n.
Dude with everything we’ve seen, we know Max could put her down, and Dabbler at least respects her on a level where they share the teleporting hand trick and can call for favors. That puts her clearly above humans, just like 98% of the cast, while keeping her well below the upper limit we’ve seen. Basically she’s an average character by this point.
So what youre basically saying is that Vegitas not overpowered because Goku exists?Id put Cora at no4 in threat levels on the goodguy side assuming everything weve seen so far is all she can do.She definately cant take Maxima and Dabblers range of skills is too broad for her to have much if a chance in a fair fight but Cora can probably kill anyone else in Archon without too much trouble(Especially all the guys barring Achiles who is invincible but largely worthless in a fight).You have a funny Idea of what makes 98% of the cast.
In short she has ranged weapons that can turn even Anvil into chunky salsa,Can essentially shapeshift and disguise herself as anyone and anything and has built in forcefields that can probably stop a 50 cal without noticing.And this is assuming Dave doesnt work out 5 more amazing powers for her to have before we get Sydney home.
So when’s the lineup for Cora? Like a model of stuff like “heavy assault rig,” “basic every day wear,” “base model” (unit shut down), and the like? We’ve already gotten a small look at some via her showing off for Sydney, but a pinup style vote incentive would be awesome.
Woo, lady abs!
That is all.
*sigh* They’re never gonna get on that ship, are they.
Sydney’s reaction to seeing Cora’s ship would be a nice reveal for #700.
Or
Meanwhile on Earth….
I could see her doung a decent Spawn interpretation with whirling spiked chains
Which I am going to mentally visualize as chain-sword versions of Sil’s tit-entacles.
My favorite panes for a year. Love today.
Not checking over 100 comments to see if it’s been said. Apologies if it has.
Who thinks Vale knows exactly who that is by voice alone, and is willfully covering for her because Vale both enjoys Sidney level shenanigans on some level, and because of the headache of dealing with her boss after he finds out?
She answered before Deus finished his question, almost like she was quick to brush it off. Unless he was just trailing off there.
I think she has other reasons if that’s the case, but I do think she likes Sydney more than she lets on.
After the elevator trip to the lab I’m sure she’s painfully familiar with what Sydney sounds like.
All these entries saying “Marilith” and linked to a D&D image were driving me nuts, mainly because I used to play the game, but I remembered this monster…but not this name.
I played Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, 2nd edition.
I had to hunt down my monster manual and find the picture of the six armed snake woman and the name was
tanar’ri
However it has a relatively long entry and reading it…and then googling for clarification. Seems Marilith was the name of a SPECIFIC high level race of demons and they just chose it for the picture for the general entry in which demons in this edition were called Tanari’ri
Okay, I am caught up now.
-in my own defense it has been a few decades since I played the game, let alone looked at the manual other than (there it is on my shelf),
Tinari’ri, true, Marilith.
Not that I ever encountered one when playing, our campaigns were usually vampire focused…the DM was a huge castlevania fan and used Ravenloft.
You should get back into a game. It can be a lot of fun, and I’ve heard good things about 5e. (I’ll admit my current group is still doing 3.5e/pathfinder d20, so it’s not personal experience, but still, lotta good things.)
You can run into a Marilith in the Icewind Dale computer game. My 13 year old self remembers the Marilith from 1st edition AD&D, because she was drawn topless.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marilith
Yeah I was never much of a PC gamer, so that flew under my radar.
Oh Vale is definitely deciding not to get involved. You got to admire her. Her mandate is protect Deus, anything beyond that falls directly into “I think you mistaken me for someone who cares”
RIP the Holografic Wings that went MIA
Maaaaaaaybe she doesn’t want to look like the
person who caused damage to several starships
for the next hour or so.
Also…once on Earth, she should wear them whenever she flies.
110% agreed.
Especially if she can move them.
I am mentally picturing the accent of the Alien saying “Fookin Tourists” as the one from the first episode of Futurama when Fry is zipping out of the tube transport in New New York.
DaveB, I don’t think you have much to worry about, re Cora’s projections being OP. Cora’s hardlight field clearly has a finite amount of volume it can affect. I’d say in her normal two-legged form she can pop a shield that’s similar to Sydney’s personal egg-shaped one, plenty of space in which for really hard blows to rebound and flex, but it’s not really overpowered.
But with it reshaped into about 8′ of tail, that’d turn her shield into more of a skintight sausage…so she’d run into a greater danger of concussive forces affecting her squishy insides if struck really hard by something. Aka the “don’t rest your back on an outer bulkhead wall in a submarine when depth charges are going off all around” phenomenon…aka the drawback of having extra limbs (tails, tentacles, etc), you get that forcefield so close, you have Newton’s Balls* style kinetic energy impacts being transmitted from one side to the other.
(*Minds out of the gutters, folks, I’m talking about that row of 5 steel spheres suspended from a cubical frame via V-shaped wires; lift one at one end, let it drop, it smacks into its side-by-side brethren, and the ball at the far end takes off like a shot, swinging with most of the original force still intact…which makes me wonder if Sydney’s orbs could do that trick…)
Four arms? Scimitars? Ahh, so a Marilith form. Interesting.
Something tells me it’s been awhile since Cora’s had someone be happy learning about her limbs and tech. So she gets to enjoy showing off
Yo, DAVE! Physics solves your problem for you. If Hard light follows ANY physical laws it probably follows the Inverse-square law.
Whether it’s based on Electrostatics force like real force fields, Magnetism like the name suggests (Light is an Electromagnetic wave) or artificial gravity all of these fall off dramatically as they get farther from the source.
You may be able to project fragile or minimally tangible tail a good distance but if someone steps on it it’ll have the structural integrity of wet toilet paper.
It would be WAY more useful to make a set of indestructible hard light brass knuckles or a sturdy dagger than it would be to make a balsa sword or a Papier-mâché maul.
Hmm, the design reminds me a bit of Ray Harryhausen’s creation of the “snake woman” for “The 7th Voyage of Sinbad” in general shape. After the Nagas that essentially were created to run the island of Colossa and its smaller island Icossa where the Sirens live. (See also Skull Island.)
She would have to practice to coordinate those 4-limbs and that lower snake body.
Sentients with bizarre and implausible morphological and material compositions; I could suspend disbelief those. A retailer saying “our business will be complete” is beyond the bounds.